Terrain relief models - Fusion 360

[Luke (Luke (Carbide 3D))]

Hi chaps

I’m looking to do some terrain relief models again but am having a mind blank.

I’ve read

Milled out a mountain

The trick with extracting the topo data is that you need to make sure that it’s in a form that you can manipulate afterward if you want to add thickness or features to your model. Stl files are point clouds and can’t be edited so you need a nurbs surface or solid model to begin with. My process was convoluted but I have access to the tools to make it work. Sketchup- Topo Extraction Rhino- Nurbs surface draping and extrusion into solid model ProE- Import model and add features (because I’m not…

I also have

http://jthatch.com/Terrain2STL/

I’ve generated my STL, imported it in fusion 360 and the file is huge 25mb. At this stage I need to shrink it before I convert it from mesh to Brep to run the cam setup.

Any ideas on the best way to scale it. Right now it’s something like 10m wide and I’m trying to make a 3" model…

[ClayJar (Nathaniel Klumb)]

Are you set on using Fusion 360? I was not satisfied with the results I have been able to achieve with the “DEM data to STL file to F360 to BREP…” workflow. I have had much better, faster, easier results going from DEM data to a high-resolution heightmap to CAM.

I’ve been too busy with too many things to get around to doing a full rework of my how to, but give me a couple hours this morning (Baton Rouge, LA, US time) and I’ll remedy that.

[The_real_janderson (Jonathan Anderson)]

Yeah, I’m in the same situation as @Luke. I’ve got a terrain map I want to make and am letting it sit on the back burner since you said you were going to redo your process. I appreciate you doing this and sharing your information!

[ClayJar (Nathaniel Klumb)]

@The_real_janderson

I’ve got a terrain map I want to make and am letting it sit on the back burner since you said you were going to redo your process. I appreciate you doing this and sharing your information!

When I said “a couple hours this morning”, I was apparently grossly underestimating, but I’m over nine typewritten pages in so far and pretty much through with the initial QGIS half.

(I’m making detailed stepwise documentation that hopefully will make it both easy to follow directly and, like Alton Brown’s Good Eats, enlightening enough to be able to wander on your own path with an idea of how things actually work. Also, trying to make it modular, so you can choose your own adventure through the various components of potential workflows.)

[The_real_janderson (Jonathan Anderson)]

Hahaha! That sounds about right, especially given the detail of the last time you wrote it all out.

Good Eats!?! I can tell you’re a cultured man who has good taste (pun intended).

[ClayJar (Nathaniel Klumb)]

@The_real_janderson

especially given the detail of the last time you wrote it all out.

You think that was detailed? May I present…

Terrain Relief Models, Unabridged

Terrain Relief Models, Unabridged [IMG_20190415_104354-01] When I was musing about picking up a Shapeoko, the project I had in mind was carving a terrain relief model of Mount LeConte in the Smokies, and in my head I also had the trails engraved onto the model. In the quest to make this thing in my head a reality, I followed various trailblazers, perfected workflows, had epiphanies, scrapped entire workflows, wrote some plugins, added a laser, and eventually arrived at what seems to me like a…

[The_real_janderson (Jonathan Anderson)]

Wow, I think I need to excuse myself from my meetings for the next 3 hours so I can read this.

Scratch that, I think I’m sick today…

[ClayJar (Nathaniel Klumb)]

@The_real_janderson

Wow, I think I need to excuse myself from my meetings for the next 3 hours so I can read this.

It took far longer to write documentation than it did to make this today (counting everything from driving to Home Depot for a 2x12 all the way through the Nth coast of lacquer). The “pocket” in the surface of the 2x12 was 400mm tall by 275mm wide by 30mm deep, for a finished piece about 10.5" by 15.5".

The model is of the Presidential Traverse region of the White Mountains in New Hampshire (i.e. Mount Washington and vicinity), and I made this one by request of a friend. Fun fact for this piece is that I’m required by Louisiana law to charge him for it, since he works for our park system and just giving him “a thing of value” (i.e. basically anything) would be a violation of the state Ethics Code. Anyone know what the fair market value might be?